ST. LOUIS _ Prosecutors dismissed a criminal charge against Missouri Republican Gov. Eric Greitens and will be seeking a special prosecutor to refile the charge after the judge ruled that his lawyers said could call Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner as a witness.
The prosecutors announced they were dropping the charge about 4:40 p.m. Central time Monday.
The move follows several secret filings in the case over the last several days.
A spokeswoman for Gardner said the case would be refiled. Gardner left the courtroom just before 5 p.m. She did not answer questions.
Circuit Judge Rex Burlison's "unprecedented" order "places the Circuit Attorney in the impossible position of being a witness, subject to cross-examination within the offer of proof by her own subordinates," Gardner spokeswoman Susan Ryan said in a statement.
Unclear at this hour was the statute of limitations issue. Gardner took the case to the grand jury quickly because the statute of limitations was soon to expire.
Defense lawyers wanted to call Gardner because for weeks they have accused her of misconduct. They said she allowed a former lead investigator in the case to commit perjury.
The statement called the tactic part of "a scorched-earth legal and media strategy" that included attacks on "the intentions, character and integrity of every person involved in investigating the Governor's behavior including Missouri House Committee members, the Attorney General, the Circuit Attorney and her team, his victim, her family and those who have called for his resignation," Ryan's statement said.
The defense has accused investigator William Don Tisaby of putting "words in the mouth" of witnesses and removing information favorable to Greitens from reports. He said in a sworn statement that he didn't take notes during his interviews, but was caught on video taking notes. Tisaby asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a second deposition, and Burlison had seemed unwilling to allow the defense to call him. Prosecutors have said Tisaby was used only to locate and interview a few witnesses, and they never planned to call him at trial.
The move comes on the third day of jury selection for his trial, which was expected to start Tuesday or Wednesday. And it follows the announcement by defense lawyers that investigators were unable to find data or photographic evidence to bolster their case in Greitens' phone, email or Apple iCloud account. There also was no evidence that a photo had been deleted on the day Greitens' relationship with his hairdresser first became sexual, in 2015, before he publicly announced his run for governor.
With lawmakers just launching the final week of their annual session, the news took Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holt's Summit, by surprise.
"Given what we knew about the evidence, it feels like we might have been headed this direction anyway. But to try and speculate on where we'll go now is too early. Everyone here has a lot on their table trying to get their legislation through the process," Fitzwater said.
"It's certainly a surprising development," said Rep. Gina Mitten, a Richmond Heights Democrat who is the ranking minority member on the House committee investigating Greitens. "Does not impact the work of our committee."
Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, said he was surprised by the news but that "a bunch of us have been saying for a while that it's (the House's investigation) is a separate process."
Dogan, unlike most of his GOP colleagues, has long called on Greitens to resign.
Many Republicans had been holding back on calling for Greitens to resign to await the results of the trial.
"Now that the case has been, in a sense, dismissed, I wonder how that's going to sway them one way or another," said Rep. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis.
More than 100 jurors of 160 called had been questioned as of Monday, with many saying they'd heard of the invasion of privacy case, or other issues that have dogged Greitens since news of the affair broke in January. He still faces a felony charge of computer tampering for allegedly taking without permission a donor list from a charity he co-founded.
It was also not immediately clear how the dismissal would affect Greitens' prospects in Jefferson City, where a special session of the Legislature is set to begin Friday that could lead to Greitens' impeachment.
Greitens has acknowledged having an affair with the woman, but he has denied blackmailing her, and evaded questions about whether he took a picture. He called the initial House report "tabloid trash" and has attacked Gardner's investigation as politically motivated.
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